Related papers: Coarse-grained modelling of supercoiled RNA
Zirconium alloys are used in the nuclear industry as structural materials, and can be subject to high strain rate loading conditions during forming and in the case of a reactor accident. In this context, the relationship between strain rate…
The buckling and twisting of slender, elastic fibers is a deep and well-studied field. A slender elastic rod that is twisted with respect to a fixed end will spontaneously form a loop, or hockle, to relieve the torsional stress that builds.…
Existing state-of-the-art methods that take a single RNA sequence and predict the corresponding RNA secondary-structure are thermodynamic methods. These predict the most stable RNA structure, but do not consider the process of structure…
The cowpea chlorotic mottle virus (CCMV) has emerged as an exemplary model system to assess the balance between electrostatic and topological features of ssRNA viruses, specifically in the context of the viral self-assembly process. Yet, in…
DNA stretching experiments are usually interpreted using the worm-like chain model; the persistence length A appearing in the model is then interpreted as the elastic stiffness of the double helix. In fact the persistence length obtained by…
We generalize the Poland-Scheraga (PS) model to the case of a circular DNA, taking into account the twisting of the two strains around each other. Guided by recent single-molecule experiments on DNA strands, we assume that the torsional…
A thin flat rectangular plate supported on its edges and subjected to in-plane loading exhibits stable post-buckling behaviour. However, the introduction of a nonlinear (softening) elastic foundation may cause the response to become…
The forming and melting of complementary base pairs in RNA duplexes are conformational transitions required to accomplish a plethora of biological functions. Yet the dynamic steps of these transitions have not been quantitatively…
Braids composed of two interwoven polymer chains exhibit a buckling transition whose origin has been explained through the onset of plectonemic structures. Here we study, by a combination of simulation and analytics, the dynamics of…
Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) can fold into shapes that perform functions in the cell. These foldings are governed by Watson-Crick base pairing, namely Adenine to Uracil and Cytosine to Guanine (A-U and G-C). The properties of the H-P…
Using all atom molecular dynamics simulations, we report spontaneous unzipping and strong binding of small interfering RNA (siRNA) on graphene. Our dispersion corrected density functional theory based calculations suggest that nucleosides…
The closure of long equilibrated denaturation bubbles in DNA is studied using Brownian dynamics simulations. A minimal mesoscopic model is used where the double-helix is made of two interacting bead-spring freely rotating strands, with a…
Friction and wear of metals are critically influenced by the microstructures of the bodies constituting the tribological contact. Understanding the microstructural evolution taking place over the lifetime of a tribological system therefore…
By combining analytical results and simulations of various coarse-grained models we investigate the minimal energy shape of DNA minicircles which are torsionally constrained by an imposed over or undertwist. We show that twist-bend…
A double stranded DNA molecule under the stress of a pulling force acting on the strand terminals exhibits a partially denatured structure or can be completely unzipped depending the magnitude of the pulling force. A scaling argument for…
The mechanism of threshold elongation (overstretching) of DNA macromolecules under the action of external force is studied within the framework of phenomenological approach. When considering the task it is taken into account that…
We use mesoscopic non-equilibrium thermodynamics theory to describe RNA unfolding under tension. The theory introduces reaction coordinates, characterizing a continuum of states for each bond in the molecule. The unfolding considered is so…
We propose that supercoiling energizes double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) so as to facilitate thermal fluctuations to an unzipped state. We support this with a model of two elastic rods coupled via forces that represent base pair interactions.…
The strength of the spin-orbit interaction relevant to transport in a low dimensional structure depends critically on the relative geometrical arrangement of current carrying orbitals. Recent tight-binding orbital models for spin transport…
When pulled along the axis, double-strand DNA undergoes a large conformational change and elongates roughly twice its initial contour length at a pulling force about 70 pN. The transition to this highly overstretched form of DNA is very…